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Relocation to Heilbronn, Germany

Germany is a very unique country, and there is quite a lot to do to relocate to Germany from the countries outside. Based on my own experience in TUM in early 2024, I'd like to show some guidelines, resources and tips to move to Heilbronn. Hope that helps, and note that it may be out of date. Some official documents from TUM may be very helpful.

Application for visa

  • Get the offer.
  • Make an appointment for visa application (very hard in China, do it when you get the oral offer).
    • The appointment for visa application of researcher type in Shanghai has been switched to ordering all the applicants into a waiting list. And the waiting time is basically more than three months.
  • Be careful with your application material especially when applying for research-relevant ones, talk with your supervisor in advance.

Before departure

Please try to search the web, read tutorials, and talk with your friends in Germany.

  • Rent a place that can support anmeldung (registration). Can find a temporary fully-furnished residence first (Most Airbnb/Hotel do not support, Service Apartment may work e.g., Cinari). Ask for the landlord's confirmation in an official doc which is critical to successful registration.
    • Here are some aggregated sources provided by TUM Management school for finding a place to live, please check the "Find a place to call home" section on this page. And official website for some apartments: shareside, Rosenberg Quartier
    • If you want to rent an apartment, please confirm whether the apartment allows non-student renting by writing an email or making a phone call to the apartment. It takes a long time for PhD to apply for the studentship, so mostly we are regarded as non-student.
  • Make an online appointment about anmeldung in Rathaus. (Great to be the day immediately after your arrival)
  • May need to prepare some law-allowed-amount cash (Germany is not that digitalized and you do not have banking account in the first few days)
  • Book air ticket smartly (Great to arrive in Stuggart, but mostly in Frankfurt), and suggest buying the long-distance train ticket in the train station as your flight may be delayed (Buy Deutschland ticket two days before in DB app). The way to come to Heilbronn from Frankfurt airport:
    • Flixbus, a direct bus from the airport to the main train station in Heilbronn (most convenient way).
    • DB, one train station in Frankfurt airport, but need to transfer >1 times, not very reliable.
    • Uber/Bolt/Blablacar, expensive but quick and door-to-door, do not take taxi!
  • Learn health insurance in Germany (mostly statutory), a commonly used insurance is TK, and one very responsive agent is [email protected].
  • Do some physical exercise as you may walk a lot for different admin stuff :-)

Arrive in Germany

Suggest coming to Germany at least one week before your starting day to spare your time to focus on the following things. Register yourself at your appointment time. Do other stuff in parallel once you get the residence permit:

  • Go to the store to get a banking account (e.g., Commerzbank), and a phone number (e.g., Telecom, a prepaid card is fine).
  • Get health insurance (may also refund your travel insurance)
  • Get taxID (wait for the letter after registration) and pass it to HR.
  • Make an appointment to get a settlement permit to extend your stay in Germany.

Work-related stuff

  • Try to talk with your supervisor or assistant to request a high-performance workstation (maybe with Nvidia RTX-4090 GPU), rather than a laptop much before departure.
  • Request campus card to access a list of services in Bildungscampus Heilbronn e.g., your workplace, canteen, library, free shared bike, etc.
  • It takes time to get the access to intranet, be patient.
  • More detailed information for onboarding at TUM can be seen at https://www.tum.de/en/community/onboarding

Tips

  • If you do not know German, please install Google Translate on all your device (e.g., extension in Chrome, app in your phone), and it will save your life :-)
  • Fluent English can help accelerate the whole process, otherwise, remember some essential sentences in German to make your life easier.
  • Download Lidl plus and Kaufland app for your cheaper grocery.